There are many important days observed in our American culture. General agreement has produced six major holidays. Labor Day is one of them. The other five all are important, too, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Each is significantly different, but important, nonetheless.
Labor Day is more important than the final opportunity to experience the blessings of Summer. It is more than the old standard of not wearing white Summer clothing and shoes after the first Monday in September.
With all of the other holidays and observances it often seems as though we can lose the significance of the special days.
Many parts of the world use May 1 as a Labor Day, mainly as a memorial to the Haymarket massacre deaths in 1886 in Chicago. Many in the U.S. did not want to follow the May 1 celebrations, in part because of the traditional May Day celebrations for children and sharing May Day baskets, and in part because the sentiment was not to follow the lead of European labor situations. So the general agreement to celebrate Labor Day at the start of September found consensus.
However, the best Labor Day observance would be for more jobs to be created and there are many ways to do it.
With the crumbling infrastructure in our country, the U.S. government should provide work programs for able workers, especially younger workers, similar to successful programs in the 1930s.
It is not a one-fix solution, but it could help.